Beckshome.com: Thomas Beck's Blog

I had to really lay into this movie in my Amazon.com review. I tend to write reviews for products that I’m impressed with and just keep quite on products that don’t really impress. This movie, however, was the exception. It got such good reviews on Amazon that I felt compelled to give it a look. The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) had some of the best information on this flick outside of Amazon. It didn’t make the mainstream movie reviews sites like Rottentomatoes.com since it never made it to the box office. 2 stars was probably a bit harsh, 2.5 would have been more appropriate. I felt the genuine need to remove this movie from the 5 star plateau though as this is genuinely deceitful. My Amazon review follows:

If you haven’t spent any time in Pittsburgh, you can ignore this post. If you have spent some portion of your life there or know someone who has, have I got a great gift idea for you. “Chipped Ham Sam”, the first in a line of Yappin ‘Yinzers dolls is available for purchase at http://www.yappinyinzers.com. Check out the site and poke Sam in the belly for one of 9 witty Pittsburghese sayings.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m a pretty dedicated listener of both the Wall Street Journal Audio Edition and the IT Conversations podcast site. This morning, I caught some great audio from both of them.

IT Conversations – The IT Conversations audio came from the Software 2006 conference series. The focus of the podcast in question was a CIO panel at that conference. Toby Redshaw and Con Goedman, IT executives from Motorola and Shell International, respectively, provide some great insights into the user-focused mentality that it takes to succeed as an IT executive in the corporate world. They are both quite candid, with Mr.Redshaw providing some especially interesting insights and sound bytes. I’ve quoted a couple below:

If you haven’t seen the materials yet on the Destiny USA project, it’s worth giving them a look. The official site is a masterpiece of Flash animation and in the Wikipedia entry, as always, you can find all of the details. The goal of the Destiny project is to create a one-of-a-kind eco-tourism complex encompassing shopping, entertainment, dining, and hotel accommodations in Syracuse, New York. The shopping complex would surpass the Mall of America as the country’s largest mall. The “green” touches included everything from a 100% fossil fuel free / sustainable energy operating goal and organically grown food in the restaurants to a glass-enclosed indoor park and 20 acre artificial lake. In addition, there are plans to create a research laboratory near Destiny for research into renewable energy, security, sustainable design, and more.

I received the Bose SoundDock as a gift for Father’s Day (thank you girls!) and felt compelled to tell everyone about it. For a couple of days, I mulled over trading in the white model I received for a black model to match my IPod. After reading all the glowing reviews on Amazon.com, I just couldn’t bear waiting another week to try the SoundDock out. I was not disappointed…

The sound on the unit is incredible given its small size. What’s most amazing is that you can crank up the volume and get little or no sound degradation. Given the rather limited controls on the speaker unit, fine tuning is more a matter of tweaking the IPod’s equalizer settings. It gets around pretty well within the house, having made the rounds from the bedroom to the study and ultimately to the basement to accompany me for workouts. From the reviews I read, it would seem that caution (and adequate packing) is advised for transporting the SoundDock over longer distances. I believe that a separate case is available for the SoundDock. If nothing else, you can box it up again and move it around that way.